Farmers reject Defra claim SFI payments are ‘more generous’

A social media post from Defra, claiming that the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) is “more generous” than EU schemes has triggered a backlash from farmers in England.

The Defra post poses the question “How does the Sustainable Farming Incentive work?” and includes a video explaining the three standards available – arable soils, improved grassland soils and moorland – which will help farmers become more sustainable.

See also: Sustainable Farming Incentive opens for applications in England

With applications now open and more standards in the pipeline, the video points to the Defra website, promising payment three months after joining.

But its claim that “the funding [is] more generous than that of EU schemes” has been challenged by farmers who say they are losing far more in cuts to their Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) money than they stand to gain from SFI.

“We lost about £21,000 last year in BPS cuts and will lose the same again this year, and so on until it is all gone,” said Simon Bainbridge, who runs Bainbridge Farms near Morpeth in Northumberland.

On an extensively managed upland farm, there were few opportunities to boost production to make good any net loss, he added.

“We have already cut all the costs we can, employed less labour and diversified into everything from cottages to fishing lakes. Like many, we just don’t know what else to do.”

Mr Bainbridge said that even if the SFI were more generous, he would be unable to join as his whole farm was tied up in pre-existing organic and upland stewardship schemes, “and you can’t do the same thing twice on the same ground”.

“The claim SFI is more generous is a blatant mistruth and very unfair,” he said. “Another farmer I know who has been involved in the pilots has looked into it and it just does not stack up.”

‘Baffling’

Farmers Weekly columnist Joe Stanley also responded to the Defra tweet, describing the claim as “particularly baffling”. He said it was “frustrating” that the government was continually trying to frame policy “in opposition to the EU”.

“On any metric, English farmers will be financially worse off under SFI vs CAP,” he tweeted.

Tenant Farmers Association chief executive George Dunn agreed that there was a “gulf between the reality and the aspiration”.

“There is definitely an aspiration at Defra that the entire Environmental Land Management scheme should be more generous than previous EU agri-environment schemes,” he said. “Given that the BPS is being dismantled, it has to be.”

But to suggest this was already the case was “naive and patently untrue”.

“Defra has only just opened the door on the SFI, and there is more to come. When we get there, it must be more beefy, more wide-ranging and better funded,” Mr Dunn said. “But it is a bit disingenuous to say it is ‘more generous’ than EU schemes already.”

However, Mr Dunn also cautioned against criticising Defra and the SFI too much, pointing out that, with a new prime minister on the way and an economic recession looming, the prospects of future overall budget cuts were considerable.

Defra response

In response, Defra seeks to clarify that it’s statement about the SFI was in comparison to other agri-environment schemes, not the BPS.

“We have developed new approaches to calculating payments under the SFI which are more generous compared with previous agri-environment schemes and better reflect the nature of farming in England,” said a spokesperson.

“The Agricultural Transition Plan maintains the same annual budget for the farming sector, but repurposes payments so that they actually support farmers for the work that they do.

“Under the Common Agricultural Policy, half of the money was given to the wealthiest 10% of landowners in the country, which did not help food production or the environment. We will be making sure that our new schemes are accessible to all farm business sizes, types and locations.”